Juicy Fruiter

Juicy Fruiter
Found this interesting blog - a guy that actually loves his job!
Go pay him a visit.

T'is me - I'm back

Right here in your face. I was more or less absent from this piece of cyber real estate. Now, I'm back.
Watch this space!!
Novelists, cyclists, healthy people, sick people bla bla bla.
I will talk to ya soon, hear?

Human Nutrition

Essential Nutrients

Nutrients are classified into five major groups: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. These groups comprise between 45 and 50 substances that scientists have established, mostly through experiments with animals, as essential for maintaining normal growth and health. Besides water and oxygen, they include about eight amino acids from proteins, four fat-soluble and ten water-soluble vitamins, about ten minerals, and three electrolytes.
Although carbohydrates are needed for the body's energy, they are not considered absolutely essential, because protein can be converted for this purpose.

Energy

The body uses energy to carry on vital activities and to maintain itself at a constant temperature. By using a calorimeter, scientists have been able to establish the energy amounts of the body's fuels—carbohydrates, fats, and protein. About 4 calories each are yielded by 1 g (0.035 oz) of pure carbohydrate and 1 gram of pure protein; 1 gram of pure fat yields about 9 calories.
Carbohydrates are the most abundant foods in the world, and fats are the most concentrated and easily stored fuel. If the body exhausts its available carbohydrates and fats, it can use proteins directly from the diet or break down its own protein tissue to make fuel. Alcohol is also a source of energy and yields 7 calories per gram.
Alcohol cannot be oxidized by the body cells but must be processed by the liver into fat, which is then stored by the liver or in the adipose tissue.

Functions of Nutrients

Proteins

The primary function of protein is to build body tissue and to synthesize enzymes, some hormones such as insulin that regulate communication among organs and cells, and other complex substances that govern body processes. Animal and plant proteins are not used in the form in which they are ingested but are broken down by digestive enzymes (proteases) into nitrogen-containing amino acids. Proteases disrupt the peptide bonds by which the ingested amino acids are linked, so that they can be absorbed through the intestine into the blood and recombined into the particular tissue needed.
Proteins are usually readily available from both animal and plant sources. Of the 20 amino acids that make up protein, eight are considered essential—that is, because the body cannot synthesize them, they must be supplied ready-made in foods. If these essential amino acids are not all present at the same time and in specific proportions, the other amino acids, in whole or in part, cannot be used for metabolizing human protein. Therefore, a diet containing these essential amino acids is very important for sustaining growth and health. When any of the essential amino acids is lacking, the remaining ones are converted into energy-yielding compounds, and their nitrogen is excreted. When an excess of protein is eaten, which is often the case in countries with heavy meat diets, the extra protein is similarly broken down into energy-yielding compounds.
Many illnesses and infections lead to an increased loss of nitrogen from the body. This needs to be replaced by a higher consumption of dietary protein. Infants and young children also require more protein per kilogram of body weight.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates provide a great part of the energy in most human diets. Foods rich in carbohydrates are usually the most abundant and cheapest, when compared with foods high in protein and fat content. Carbohydrates are burned during metabolism to produce energy, liberating carbon dioxide and water. Humans also get energy less efficiently from fats and proteins in the diet.
The two kinds of carbohydrates are starches, which are found mainly in grains, legumes, and tubers, and sugars, which are found in plants and fruits. Carbohydrates are used by the cells in the form of glucose, the body's main fuel. After absorption from the small intestine, glucose is processed in the liver, which stores some as glycogen, a starchlike substance, and passes the rest into the bloodstream. In combination with fatty acids, glucose forms triglycerides, fat compounds that can easily be broken down into combustible ketones. Glucose and triglycerides are carried by the bloodstream to the muscles and organs to be oxidized, and excess quantities are stored as fat in the adipose and other tissues, to be retrieved and burned at times of low carbohydrate intake.
The carbohydrates containing the most nutrients are the complex carbohydrates, such as unrefined grains, tubers, vegetables, and fruit, which also provide protein, vitamins, minerals, and fats. A less beneficial source is foods made from refined sugar, such as confectionery and soft drinks, which are high in calories but low in nutrients and fill the body with what nutritionists call empty calories and it will be stored as fat!

Fats

Although scarcer than carbohydrates, fats produce more than twice as much energy. Being a compact fuel, fat is efficiently stored in the body for later use when carbohydrates are in short supply. Animals obviously need stored fat to tide them over dry or cold seasons, as do humans during times of scarce food supply.

In industrial nations, however, with food always available and with machines replacing human labour, the accumulation of body fat has become a serious health concern.

Dietary fats are broken down into fatty acids that pass into the blood to form the body's own triglycerides. The fatty acids that contain as many hydrogen atoms as possible on the carbon chain are called saturated fatty acids and are derived mostly from animal sources. Unsaturated fatty acids are those that have some of the hydrogen atoms missing; this group includes monounsaturated fatty acids, which have a single pair of hydrogens missing, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which have more than one pair missing. Polyunsaturated fats are found mostly in seed oils. Saturated fats in the bloodstream have been found to raise the level of cholesterol, and polyunsaturated fat tends to lower it. Saturated fats are generally solid at room temperature; polyunsaturated fats are liquid. ¹

1 ."Nutrition, Human," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation.

Tour Durban Cycle Tour

And so it came to pass that the Tour Durban was done in (almost) perfect weather. We were charged up and ready. And the results speak out . . . read more below.
Also read about my son Christiaan's first ever cycle race . . .
Results for: Pieter Naude in Mr Price Tour Durban (24/04/2005)
Gender: Male
Club: Amanzimtoti Cycling Club
Age: 47
Start Time (Official): 6:08:39
Distance: 96 Km
Category: Vets 45-49
Batch: SACF Licenced Men 40+
Finish Information:
Finish Time (Net): 2:48:27
Avg. Speed (min/km): 1:45
Avg. Speed (km/h): 34.20
Race Positions:
Category (Gross): 64 out of 280
Gender (Gross): 618 out of 2027
Over All (Gross): 641 out of 2413
Category (Net): 65 out of 280
Gender (Net): 623 out of 2027
Over All (Net): 646 out of 2413

. . . and my son Christiaan did his first race. Started training about 3 weeks ago, no prior experience, still shaky and unsure on the bike, many training hours short for such a distance, and he did . . . ta-da . . . wait for it . . . 3 hours 55 minutes!!!

Well done my son. You will keep me in training because otherwise I will get my behind kicked by junior!!

Been there done that . .

We are back in town, in cyberspace and in your face. Done the Argus, got the T-shirt and spent 10 lovely days in the Cape.

Didn't fall, didn't get blown away, didn't get mechanical trouble or punctures,didn't spare myself and did a respectable 3 hours 23 minutes in winds of up to 40km/h! We had to actually pedal HARD DOWN Chapman's Peak into Houtbay! Unheard of! One should be screaming down there at over 70, not push like hell to get 30!?!

Nevertheless; good race, excellent organization, always an honour to particpate and finish, always a pleasure doing business with the S'Easter!

Spent time in Cape Town, spent some money in Cape Town. Some days wonder if the emphasis on international tourism is not killing the local holiday-maker's (financial) fun. Maybe it's just me? Maybe I lost track of prices . . .

Went to Stormsriver Mouth - SA National Parks Board - Tsitsikamma National Park. Fantastic. One word: Fantastic. Been there before but I was amazed and totally overwhelmed by the quality of the service, the friendliness, the neatness, the hospitality. Then we went to the on-site restaurant and that totally bowled me over; world-class cuisine at affordable prices - with a setting like that one can easily expect to pay through your neck but not here! Congratulations SANparks. You've done us proud. I am NOT getting paid to say this but every reader of this log should make a plan to go there. At least once. It is worth every penny and is food for the soul.

We will be back next year to do it all again. For the love of the sport, the love of the Cape province, for no reason other than just to be there.